Sorry, this movie sucks

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It's been a while since I watched this movie. It was like two years ago when I watched it, and I watched it on a classmate's laptop on a school trip. I'll tell you, though, I saw pretty much everything, except I closed my eyes on the jaw scene. I'll tell you, that is extremely, extremely graphic. Taking it away would probably give a 14A in some parts of Canada and lower ratings in other places, such as a possible PG-12 in Japan.Anyway, I don't remember so well, but this was actually quite frightening. You'll be scared if you have a weak heart.Rating is 7.

I don't usually comment on films that already have this many reviews, but I saw Mirrors three or four years ago, and it stayed with me. I realise I'm in the minority, but I really liked it, so I got the DVD to make sure, and I still really like it.The first hour accurately replicates the terror and confusion of the onset of mental illness, both from a sufferer's point of view and that of someone witnessing changes in a person they know. There's a palpable atmosphere throughout the runtime, helped by an energetic score, the performances, especially Sutherland's, who's very good, and some stylised lighting, particularly during the burnt-out shopping precinct scenes.While the effects are generally impressive, this stylisation helps soften some of the less convincing CG. The precinct set (or location, possibly) looks great - I hesitate to say it but it's reminiscent of games such as Devil May Cry, and looking like a video game generally isn't a good thing for a film, but it does work. The scenes outside this setting are lit more realistically, but the difference isn't jarring.As the second half gets going it naturally becomes unequivocably supernatural, which is often a turnoff for me, but by that point I was invested. It kinda becomes a mystery for 20 or 30 minutes, as Sutherland's character tries to figure out what's going on, then returns to its original unsettling mood. The tension never lets up for long, and the ending is satisfying.Definitely watch it with the lights off. Preferably surrounded by mirrors. And if you need a bit of light relief afterwards, there's an extra on the DVD with a goth talking nonsense.

Besides being a devout Horror fan, two reasons made me try this film: First, my love for Horror films featuring well known top rated cast members (in this case Kiefer Sutherland). As a terribly underrated genre, every known television or cinema star who plays in Horror adds to its coverage and prestige. Second, even if I wasn't a fan of the Haunting and Ghost Story sub-genre, I've always liked Horror stories concerning and involving mirrors. I've never had a real fear of mirrors myself, but this specific theme has tons of potential in the Horror genre!Mirrors allegedly delivers all of the above. The acting is pretty much great (not just Sutherland, every member of the cast did a good job). At times I didn't like Paula Patton's overacting (though it was obviously a direct order from the filmmakers), and I did think there was room to give Cameron Boyce and Erica Gluck more screen time (mainly because I'm a huge fan of young actors and actresses taking their first steps in Horror), but bad acting was definitely not one of this film's problems. The story didn't feel too original but quite generic. Something evil lives in the mirror, we should drive it away before it kills us. What did seem original (I haven't seen it in other films yet) was the way the evil in the mirror kills its victims, using their reflections against them. I've watched the unrated version, which turned out to be a mistake, as I'm not a fan of gore, blood and the "look how much money I've spent on effects" syndrome. Gore fans would prefer that version, though.The ending lacks the coveted plot twist which makes a good Horror film great, and yet was original and well executed. Many films of this genre suffer from its curse - endings which are anticlimactic and sometimes down right disappointing. While a well thought of plot twist is an excellent tool to deter that effect, Mirrors shows us that not all fine endings involve twists.All in all, I've really enjoyed watching this film. While some parts of the story weren't as good as others, the overall experience is entertaining and at times actually frightening. Definitely recommended!

"Mirrors" is an attempt at an American remake of a Korean horror film and it just doesn't translate. Even if you're not familiar with the original story, there are constant inconsistencies present and a climax that shatters the film like a tea cup thrown out onto the pavement. The premise is that an ex-police officer (Kiefer Sutherland as Ben) that is down on his luck is hired as a night guard at an abandoned shopping center. There he begins seeing strange images inside the mirrors of the building. They turn out to be far more than just hallucinations; they're deadly. If he wants these horrifying images to stop and his family to be safe he will have to solve a good ol' fashioned horror-ghost mystery.If you're a fan of what I call "J-Horror" films, you will see an overall story that's pretty familiar. You expect the movie to set up some terrifying visions, a quest for the hero, a couple of deaths here and there and a terrifying mystery in the end. The trick will be to get to the bottom of the catastrophe while avoiding any mirror surfaces, which are conduits for the ghostly forces. Trouble begins when The rules set up early in the movie keep getting broken. The further you get in, the more it becomes both confusing and frustrating. For example, the main way that mirrors kill people in the film is by having the reflections act on their own and force people to commit suicide (it's odd, but that's the general idea). Towards the climax of the film this changes completely. Sometimes reflections attack other people or appear without the person who created them being in the room. The reflections feel more like evil ghost duplicates than actual evil versions of themselves that are trapped in reflective surfaces. There are even some scenes where people are being attacked without any reflection present, so in the end you just give up trying to understand what's going on with the movie. Another inconsistency is in the sounds. Most of the time, the mirrors don't make any noise. That makes sense because they're just images reflected that gain the supernatural ability to influence people instead of the other way around. Once again towards the end of the film you hear some reflections making noises and talking and it doesn't make any sense. In theory it would work because just when you think your character is safe, suddenly he or she will be in mortal peril, but in practice it just feels like the script was quickly written with additional scares thrown in without anyone taking a second look at them to see if they worked with the film's pre-established rules.Another big flaw in the film is that it isn't very frightening. You'll be jumping out of your seat plenty, but that's because the movie uses cheap tactics to startle you. If it isn't a quick flash of a grotesque mutilated body accompanied by a music sting, it's a sudden flapping of bird wings or a door slamming. The movie has some genuinely creepy looking sets and some unsettling scenes but instead of building suspense and letting the chills slowly come to you as you start playing with possible scenarios in your head, it just interrupts itself with these cheap sound cues and loud noises. It's a shame because the movie actually starts off pretty creepy. You have this really big derelict shopping center that was the setting for a big tragedy and our main character is stuck there for hours by himself in the dark. There are creepy burnt manikins, perfect for setting up an unsuspecting sneak onto Ben... but it just drops that entirely by making the bulk of the film set in a series of different location. It doesn't help that the characters in the movie make the same mistakes as every other character that sees ghosts and is forced to solve a supernatural mystery. Ben acts erratically, breaking mirrors and painting over them without giving any explanations to the people around him and he doesn't ever try to collect evidence that there are weird things going on. He never tries to convince the people he is trying to protect that he isn't crazy, just so we can have the scene where he gets into a fight with the people that don't believe him.Then, we get to that ending. This is A MINOR SPOILER, but we're basically told that long ago the problem of the ghosts/mirrors/demonic creatures was tackled by exorcists and priests and that they had no success in taming this threat. This information is not only inconsistent with the end of the movie, but it makes the behaviour of the characters in the film totally unexplainable. The ridiculous reason for the mirrors being dangerous is nothing compared to the climax of the film, which is taken from a totally different genre and is downright silly. It would be wrong to spoil exactly what happens in the scenes right before the very end of the movie but if you see this confrontation you'll be shaking your head in embarrassment.The movie isn't a complete disaster but there are points where you can totally tell that the original story just wouldn't translate into a North American setting and nobody knew what to do. Solution? Pick something at random from another horror movie and fill in the gaps. It ends up playing like a terrible Asian ghost movie and a terrible American haunted house story mashed together and coarsely stitched so it would stay in place just long enough for the film to conclude. If the concept of "Mirrors" sounds interesting to you, track down the original source material, or just grab a good Asian horror film. Don't bother sitting through this 111 minute train wreck because you'll be really frustrated as everything that looked promising at first falls flat on its face. (Dvd, April 11, 2013)